today we woke up extremely early - 5 am - because we were selling at the fleamarket! once a year there's a big fleamarket in turnhout, my boyfriends hometown. when we moved last year, we sorted loads of things out and we decided it was about time to finally get rid of all the stuff. 

it was an extremely busy fleamarket, and we almost had to return home because there were so many sellers! but we got lucky and had a great selling spot in the end... :)

the fleamarket is also the reason i've been neglecting my swatch-a-week project. i am currently two swatches behind... oops! i've been really busy sorting, cleaning and washing all my stuff, which was actually a lot of fun to do and brought a lot of memories too. the blue floral dress, for instance, was my favorite dress in my first year of art school. :) now it will make a nice summer dress for a pretty blonde girl (who looked great with the blue)! that's really what i love about fleamarkets... all the stories!! :)

another addition to the happy list i posted last week:

buttons! as you might have noticed; i LOVE buttons. not that i have many projects where i can use them, i mostly imagine them sewed on my future kid's clothes or on my first knitted cardigan. :) i found these on the fleamarket and i think this might be one of my best "button finds" ever! i especially love the blue ones...

swatch no. 13 was knitted last week. ajour again, and my favourite ajour swatch so far! compared to other ajour patterns, it's very easy to memorize (only 2 rows!) and i think it looks great.

swatch no.13: ajour #3

swatch no.14 is also a pretty good one, i only knitted 10 rows and i can't wait to show you when it's finished!

i finished my first christmas balls! they turn out quite big (note: i do have tiny hands) but that's a good thing, cause we're planning on having a big christmas tree. :)

 here are 2 finished christmas balls, one ball waiting for stuffing and one being knitted. i'm really getting the hang of it, each ball looks better and better!

i also went treasurehunting at the fleamarket this weekend, this is what i bought:

 buttons, as usual.i looove the pink and purple ones, so cute.

and yarn!! i definitely have enough yarn stocked up, but i couldn't resist buying some more skeins as the colors were extremely nice! now i only have to figure out how to get rid of the musty smell... :)

one of the reasons i learned how to crochet was because i loved those old-fashioned granny square blankets and i really wanted to make one myself. i also have a thing for crocheted clothes hangers, and i wanted to make some too.

so i was looking for those good old wooden clothes hangers on fleamarkets, but they were actually quite difficult to find. not the right size or form, too big, too small, too expensive... but last week i finally got lucky! i bought some cotton yarn and now the idea is to follow this pattern and to combine grey with a color for each hanger.

i've also started a new pair of socks, this will be a ribbed pair for a change. :) i'm modifying my own basic pattern so i'm very curious about the outcome... can't knit fast enough! :)

fleamarket and kringwinkel-finds from the last few weeks:
a wooden apple-bowl...
lots of mending wool to fix the holes in my socks...
six skeins of soft mint-coloured Phildar yarn...
and a book with patterns for seventies shawls! i might crochet the shawl on the cover with the new (old) yarn but there are so many great patterns out there it will be difficult to choose! :)

after visiting Handmade in Belgium some weeks ago, my boyfriend showed me the kringwinkel of hasselt! i found two quite large packs full of "smyrnalaine", which is the wool i recycle into little felt balls.
(i love the graphic-ness of this image!)
these are some felt balls i made with some leftover "smyrnalaine" my grandma gave me.
i really like those colors! (especially the yellow)
i'm not sure what to do with them yet, i just enjoy making them! :)
i also bought some fabric, letter-shaped bowls and three pocket books! all of it for only 5 euros! seriously... how great are thriftstores?!

thursday, i received the P.I.F from Poes P, a gorgeous grass-green crocheted bag, beautifully made! it's perfect for carrying my knitting around the house!
i haven't been this excited (those buttons!!) about something since receiving Mamasha's custom made stamps! (of which i never showed a picture, shame on me; here it is... so beautiful)


saturday i went to the fleamarket in Geel and i found alot of sewing supplies:
again a lot of fabric...curtains, table sheets, pillow cases... (must.stop.buying.fabric.)

and a lot of buttons!

my pots are getting quite full now... look how empty they were 8 months ago... i even had to get some new pots for white, yellow and orange!

next up: the progress on my socks (one and a half finished!!), the progress on my granny square blanket and when i hit 100 followers... a give-away!!

i'm back from la douce france! let me share some of my souvenirs with you!

in Aix-en-Provence there was a cute fabric store just around the corner... they had such pretty fabrics! i decided to buy some, but only if they were "provence-ish" and affordable.


there was also a big bookshop in Aix. we went in to buy a map of Marseille, but ofcourse i ended up buying books. i never saw so many good hobby books in one shop, i had the hardest time picking just one. :) to my own surprise, this point de croix ( cross stitching) book caught my special attention...



i've also got some other souvenirs: a tan and a sunburned belly, new sandals, authentic marseille soap and 34 crocheted granny squares... and while i was in france, my order from Wolhalla arrived at home. they are selling Noro yarn for only half the price and i ordered three skeins, one for a pair of mittens and two for a scarf called "wabi-sabi". this yarn is sooooo pretty! the colours are stunning and it is incredibly soft...totally worth its money! i can't wait to start (after i finish my socks!), i do hope i get them ready before winter.


conclusion: the provence is great, holidays always end too soon and i should really start using all my yarn and fabrics. (a sewing project is in the making, though!)


(PS: still nobody who wants to P.I.F.???)

found two weeks ago on the fleamarket in turnhout:
8 gorgeous pieces of fabrics, probably old curtain swatches... all with flower and birds prints in different colours!


this one is my favorite! i already know it's going to be very hard to decide what to do with them... any suggestions?

i wouldn't be me if i wasn't constantly looking for buttons... we came across this nice lady who sold vintage button cards, in different colors and sized. and quite cheap too!


i also started (yet another) knitting project... i've been wanting to learn how to knit "in the round" for some time now, and look... a sock is being born! i'm quite happy with it... and i still got all my eyes! ;)

friday, eline from pomme-pon and i went treasure hunting in one of the kringwinkels in Ghent. we found some really cool stuff, look what i bought:

a piece of (synthetic) fabric, a sheet and a pillowcase...

buttons...

and cute tiroler and lace ribbon! (which i'm trying to bleach, it's still a bit too yellow for my taste)all of it for only 8 euros... :)

we also went to Veritas and these 4 were screaming "buy me!"... i know exactly what to do with them, it's gonna involve some crocheting and also some felt... can't wait to give it a try! i LOVE the minty green, my next blanket or crocheting project (i really want to make the Lucy bag) should definitely have minty green as one of the colours)